pages

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Cube seat all covered and matching - just how I like it!

Remember the dressing table I made from the old computer station - 'this one'?
And remember the matching seat I promised was on its way?

Well here it is, a cube seat:-

The best bit is that it was so easy to make and cost me nothing more than my time.

So if you'd like to find out how I did it then continue reading, if not then feel free to check out my other posts, links or leave a comment or two, I love to get them and always try to reply.

Alrighty, the cube seat was made from a small chest of drawers I had kept when moving from the old place into our new home. The drawers and the runners had already been salvaged and used in the 'Computer desk to dressing table' project so the basic skeleton was all that was left of it and I have to say that for a cheap piece of old Argos furniture it was suprisingly well made, though very beaten up:-

Originally I was going to take those awful Grey plastic feet off the bottom but then I decided they'd make less of an indent on the bedroom carpet than the wood frame would so they stayed on.
The frame as it stood was too tall for what I needed so I took it apart, cleaned each piece and then measured the height I wanted on the long side pieces and went at them with my Dewalt Jigsaw (Ladies, if you don't already use power tools make a point of trying them out. My OH has always encouraged me to use them and I wouldn't be without them now).

The top and bottom pieces of wood had a bowed effect to them so I had to cut them both straight with the Dewalt Jigsaw to give me straight edges.
I then reassembled the pieces using all the original fixings. As I said this was suprisingly well made. It was easy to dismantle and easy to put back together.
Finally I cut the backboard to fit the new dimensions (only the height of the piece had changed) and used the original tacks to fix it back on.

That's how simple the construction was. I wasn't worried about sanding the piece or painting it because it's going to be covered.
Next to get it indoors and get out my fabulous sewing machine:-

I love this sewing machine. My OH bought it for me after I'd watched it for several months on 'Ideal world'. It'a Silver Viscount 9300e and to me it's the bee's knees. I've never spent quite so much on a sewing machine but this bit of kit is well worth every penny!

Anyway, I digress, I didn't have to hunt around searching for and choosing fabric because I knew exactly which fabric I was going to use.
The base cover was a simple cotton fabric in a very pale Cream colour and the cushion cover would be a lovely Plum Satin type fabric I had purchased from EBay to make these 'Roman Blinds' for my bedroom.

As much as I love sewing I am not the most patient of sewers. If I know a project is going to take a few days then I can take my time no probs but if I know a project is a quickie then I tend to not be as careful as I should be and my biggest, biggest downfall is that I hardly ever pre plan (a condition I must rid myself of).
I basically measured the top (yep, actually used a tape measure ) and cut a square to fit making sure to add a 1/2" seam allowance to all sides.
Then I measured the sides, cut the squares and added 1/2" seam allowance. For some reason it has dawned on me literally while writing this blog that I didn't need to cut and sew individual squares for the sides - DUH!!!!! It would have been so much easier to have sewn one entire piece to the top fabric! I can't believe I did it the way I did!!

Anyway I did it the hard way but after adding a hem to the side pieces (something I didn't allow for in the measurement because I didn't preplan), I sewed it to the top piece and voila - a cover for the cube seat.
Now for the cushion: Well I used what was left of a body pillow for the cushion itself (I say what was left because I've gradually stripped it over time) and made an envelope cover for it.
I have to admit that this part included no measuring, I simply placed the cushion on the fabric and kind of guessed where to sew - didn't even use a pin!
I'm guessing that sewing a double hem to the envelope parts without pinning and/or ironing first is not the way to go however I folded as I went and hey ho, it's ruddy straight if I do say so myself!
So that's it, my cube seat and cushion made from the skeleton of an old set of drawers:-

This is it all tucked away. Just to prove it fits! and those drawers on the dresser, they're the ones salvaged from the piece I made this cube seat from. Cool eh!

Blogging Coffee &Teacake fund

Welcome!

Hi there, I'm Linda, thanks for popping in and taking a looksee at my blog.I blog about my Crafting projects and Gardening and will be adding a Photography section plus probably a couple more - you know what we Bloggers are like once we get Blogging!So have a look around, click those links, or leave comments, I always try to reply to comments or emails as I love getting em!